Description

A stunning pitch of juggy arete climbing. Though rather short in length, it is certainly one of the best routes at it's grade in the park.

Climb juggy rock up to a small overhang. Clear this on large holds and gain the razor sharp arete above. Continue up on mostly large holds, until a balancey move past a bolt requires you to use some friction to access the much easier, but beautifully exposed, climbing above.

Location

Start about 120' right of the obvious left-leaning crack of Rockaholic at a dirty ramp-like feature that ends 40' up at a small, flat island with a few small cedars.

Protection

Care should be taken when protecting this route as the gear is PG. This route DOES, however, easily protects with a single rack to #1 Camalot, a few QDs, and double-length slings. Also, carry along a cordalette for the tree anchor at the top. Walk off to climbers left.

Hi Chris. In the route description/rating you might want to add PG13 (you currently have it rated "G" with no specification, per Mountain Project rating standards).

I've had first hand experience with a lead climber breaking their foot on the less protected arete section you describe. We shrugged off the PG rating in the guide with regards to the runout. She became exhausted when trying to place pro in a poor spot, which directly contributed to her fall when she tried to take her next step. I've experienced similar fatigue when spending too much time placing gear in poor spots. It's not something I hear a lot about and thought it was worthy of mentioning here since the chance of it happening is obviously high on this route. :-)

[The injured climber is recovering and back to climbing after 2 years, but has some disability]

Thanks for the feedback, though I don't see where I have rated the gear as "G"? As far as I can tell, I've rated it PG (under the gear section), which in my mind, is fairly accurate, as the gear placements are definitely there, though a little spread out.

The exposure on this route and the steep climbing off the belay probably make this a less than ideal route for the 5.6 leader. But if you are comfortable leading any of the classic gunks 5.6s this should be a cakewalk.

Despite my prior comment(s), I had still not yet climbed this until yesterday. Great albeit short route. Definitely places for protection where needed, smaller cam helpful in one particular horizontal crack near the top. I agree with Worth that Redrum (5.4) isn't anything special, as the easiest P1 worth doing to get to the base of the climb.

I linked this pitch with redrum (not recommended) the 2 climbs were farther apart than i had anticipated but regardless there is a good ledge to setup a belay for sword from the top of redrum.Such a great climb but be weary of the weather on this one because it can heat up real fast on the exposed arete. Also the gear was great and the bolt seemed to be in perfect condition. Id say PG solely because falling on the sharp arete would suck.

I would not call this even PG. The gear is all there, every time you have bomber footing there is a gear placement, what more can you ask for? Though I would agree that falling on the arete would most definitely suck. I also thought the climbing seemed easier than 5.6. ALL that being said, I thought that this route was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even a little bit more than the ever famous Rockaholic.

One of the most fun routes around chapel pond IMO. Great route to just take it easy on, feels like a soft 6. Getting to the arete isn't tough nor is it the crux, the crux is protected by a bolt that is literally right in front of your face and everything after is a jug haul. The guide book says to go left after the bolt though and I'm a little confused by that, the left face was pretty crumbly compared to the perfect holds on the right side. I would also recommend starting on redrum, the traverse to belay at the base of sword is super easy and rope drag honestly isn't that bad. It seems like a way more fun start than the dirty chose pile I saw below me that is Coors Corner.